Friday, January 6, 2012

Install Windows 8 on VirtualBox

Like the Windows phone's Metro style user interface? If you do, you're definitely excited to see Microsoft has put Metro on Windows 8 as the Start Screen interface. Microsoft released Windows 8 Developer Preview to the public so that developers can build more Windows 8 Metro style apps. So we can have a first look of how the Windows 8 works like. Windows 8 Developer Preview is a pre-beta and not feature complete operating system. It is better to try it on VirtualBox instead of using as your machine's OS. Download Windows 8 Developer Preview ISO file from here and the VirtualBox.

Here's how to install Windows 8 on VirtualBox:

Open VirtualBox and click New to create new virtual machine.

Enter a name for your new virtual machine, select Microsoft Windows as Operating System and Windows 8 as Version. Note that Microsoft provides Windows 8 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) for download. If you downloaded Windows 8 64-bit (x64), then choose Windows 8 (64 bit) as your Version on VirtualBox. In my case, I downloaded the 32-bit so I name it Windows 8, Microsoft Windows as Operating System, and Windows 8 as Version. When you done, click Next.

Choose VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as File type and proceed to the next page.

I recommend you use Dynamically allocated as Storage details if you just want to play around with Windows 8 for short term. For long term, use Fixed size as Storage details will take longer time to create but faster to use. Click Next.